A Fair Sayhttps://blog.church-poverty.org.uk
Tue, 19 Feb 2019 12:03:27 +0000 en
hourly
1 http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/858e698801d6b74dbbb43f1284e2e615?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngA Fair Sayhttps://blog.church-poverty.org.uk
Some notes on class, relevance and the Churchhttps://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/02/19/some-notes-on-class-relevance-and-the-church/
https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/02/19/some-notes-on-class-relevance-and-the-church/#respondTue, 19 Feb 2019 11:56:49 +0000http://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/02/19/some-notes-on-class-relevance-and-the-church/Lynne Cullens: The following has been adapted from a series of speaker’s notes I’ve put together and delivered in various forms. It is not meant to be any form of expert view or academic piece, merely a…]]>

Lynne Cullens shares some in-depth reflections on being a vicar from a working-class background, and the church’s problems with class.

The following has been adapted from a series of speaker’s notes I’ve put together and delivered in various forms. It is not meant to be any form of expert view or academic piece, merely a collection of thoughts from my own experience which some have apparently found helpful.

Ordsall, in the late 1960’s during slum clearance (Manchester Evening News)

I’m a parish priest in the Anglican Church and I’m going to dive straight in with a story showing why, I believe, class is such an issue for us in terms of Church of England culture.

A couple of years ago I was in a women’s regional church leadership meeting. One of the female clergy there relayed the true account of a phone call she had recently received from a young woman who’d called her to ask if she could discuss a strong call to ordination she was feeling. When she…

]]>https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/02/19/some-notes-on-class-relevance-and-the-church/feed/0churchpovertyHas the Church Abandoned the Poor?https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/02/12/has-the-church-abandoned-the-poor/
https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/02/12/has-the-church-abandoned-the-poor/#respondTue, 12 Feb 2019 10:48:45 +0000http://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/?p=4737Continue reading →]]>Some interesting thoughts on class, poverty and the Church of England here, in a blog by Adam Spiers, a campaigner and supporter of Church Action on Poverty.

In April 2018, Philip North, Bishop of Burnley, expressed the opinion that there was “a widespread perception among northern DDOs [diocesan directors of ordinands] that candidates from working-class backgrounds with northern accents are victims of prejudice” in the selection process for ordination training. Bishop North has, in recent years, become one of the sharpest critics of the church regarding its treatment of working-class people. In 2017 he claimed that the church spent considerably less money per person in working class areas than in other areas, even saying “the poorer you are, the less we care about you”. Whilst this drew praise from some quarters, North’s comments are largely anecdotal or left unsubstantiated, with no statistics readily available. Nevertheless, there are a number of reasons to take such claims seriously.

The Church of England has always struggled to shake off its paternalistic image, even, or perhaps especially, when it is trying to address the difficulties faced by poor and working-class people. Indeed, even the so called ‘father of Christian socialism’, the nineteenth century Anglican clergyman, F.D. Maurice, did not advocate for actual equality in response to the legitimate grievances of the working-classes. Rather, he was motivated in large part by opposition to the violence of revolutionary fervour found on the European mainland at the time. Thus, the social gospel that has developed in the established church to this day is predisposed to uphold the state, even when it is critical of those running it.

Nineteenth century Britain was, of course, very different to the Britain of today, but many of the concerns of working-classes movements of yesteryear, bear a striking resemblance to those of today. The Chartist demand for universal suffrage has, for example, given way in many quarters, to the belief that it matters little who one votes for because the system is stacked against working-class people anyway. This, it must be said, is not a hundred miles away from the truth. Disenfranchisement can come just as effectively through the hegemonic structures of state, media, and culture as it can through the circumscription of the ballot box.

Today, just 38% of regular worshippers identify as working class, but this number is likely inflated. The 33rd British Social Attitudes Survey shows that those from a working class background who attain financial success are still likely to identify as working class. This suggests that the 38% figure does not tell the whole story, and that those who are both culturally working class and financially poor make up an even smaller percentage of regular worshippers. The Church of England’s engagement with these facts is barely noticeable, its efforts to combat poverty manifestly paternalistic. That is not to diminish these efforts. The Church has played an incredibly important role in ameliorating the worst effects of government austerity policies, but when this is not led predominantly by working-class voices, the effects will only ever be limited, and ultimately perpetuate unjust socio-economic structures.

This can, perhaps, sound a little sensationalised, however the lack of working-class voices in the Church as a whole is reflected in its own Ordained Vocations Statistics 1949-2014, which states that the church’s aim is:

an increase of 50% in the number of candidates for ordained ministry[…] [and] diversity within the cohort of ordinands so that it reflects the communities in wider society where the church is engaged in mission, in terms of age, gender and ethnic and social background.

There is of course, much to be lauded in this report. The focus on black, Asian, and minority ethnic ordinations is an important one given that they are still such an underrepresented group in the clergy when compared to both the percentage of population and of regular worshippers. Nevertheless, this is not a good report for working class ordinations. Social class is alluded to just twice, once in the above quote as ‘social background’ and once again in the same section of the paper. When such a vastly underrepresented group receives consideration so negligible as to be virtually non-existent in the one paper designed to analyse the statistics for such unfortunate trends, there can be little argument that the voices of working class people are almost entirely worthless to the church’s hierarchy and culture.

A further statistic indicative of this paternalistic failure and superficial engagement with such issues is this: only one Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey (Archbishop 1991-2002) has not been a graduate of either Oxford or Cambridge University since Simon Sudbury (Archbishop 1375-81). That’s 638 years. The current Archbishop, Justin Welby, does not buck this trend. That said, Welby commendably recognises many of the social-economic issues facing Britain today, both in his books and elsewhere, connecting them with the 2008 Financial Crisis and the corruption in the economic and political spheres. Given the misery caused by such things, it is of course right that the church, and particularly the Archbishop of Canterbury, should address them. One 2017 study for example, connected austerity policies in health and social care funding with “120,000 excess deaths from 2010 to 2017” with one of the paper’s authors, Lawrence King, saying:

It is now very clear that austerity does not promote growth or reduce deficits – it is bad economics, but good class politics […] This study shows it is also a public health disaster. It is not an exaggeration to call it economic murder.

Whilst, however, Welby acknowledges the many injustices of such policies, his approach is severely constrained by the fact that his knowledge is evidently limited to his own context. For example, his analysis of policy and rhetoric around immigration does little more than say that whilst immigration can enrich local and national culture, there can be societal tensions around integration. He then briefly mentions the fact that for some migrants, Britain’s colonial past may ‘tinge with suspicion their gratitude for being here’. Apart from the inherently colonialist assumption that migrants ought to feel ‘gratitude’ for being allowed to reside in a country other than the one in which they were born, Welby fails to acknowledge whatsoever the fact that opposition to immigration, and fascism both increase significantly when communities feel the pressure of unjust fiscal policies. This is symptomatic of the brand of politics Welby represents. During a recent interview with the editor of the Spectator, Fraser Nelson, Welby argued that he would “be worried” if his economic “analysis was based on a secular economic model” such as Marxism, Keynesianism, or ‘Friedmanite’, but that he had “to keep going back to the Bible”. And herein lies the problem: for all Welby may be well-intentioned, it is still true that conformity to a system, even when criticising some acting within it, is complicity; that criticising individual actors for their greed whilst staying silent on the foundational principles that allow such greed, is deeply ideological. This is how he is able to court both the right-wing Spectator and the left-wing Trades Union Congress (TUC). Welby thinks he hasn’t picked a side, but by steadfastly refusing to do so, his allegiance rings out loud and clear.

This lack of critical engagement is shown in Welby’s brief mentions of Karl Marx and left-wing ideologies. Welby equates ‘common ownership of the means of production’ with ‘wholesale nationalisation’, thinking that this is what Marx envisioned. This not only a highly selective reading of Marx, but a wholly inaccurate representation of communist ideology, which is further compounded by stating that Marx “famously” begins The Communist Manifesto with the words “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!”, when these words in actual fact end the work. Of course one could argue that because Welby writes for a popular audience, it is unfair to expect a rigorous grounding in socio-economic theory and its relation to theology and ministry, however the fact that it is aimed at a popular audience means that it is more likely that there will be tangible consequences. It is therefore imperative to have a rigorous grounding in the subject matter, especially if you’re the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Philip North’s claim then that the Church is “complicit in the abandonment of the poor” is difficult to overcome on the above evidence. It is not so much that the Church intends to abandon the poor though, so much as it has, often unconsciously, always looked after the interests of its monied members first. It seems to have forgotten and even to some extent depoliticised the central figure of the Christian faith: a man who we are told fashioned a whip and drove money-changers from the temple, who claimed it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, who associated closely with anti-imperialists, and who was eventually executed by the state. According to the statistics, an overwhelming majority of the public prefer this sanitised version of Jesus. Nevertheless, the gospels do not allow for such indifference, and in the presence of the practical realities of unjust legislation, neither does the working-class context. It is time for the Church’s social action to be led by working-class voices, accompanied by a robust critique of social class, and resourced fairly and equitably. Until this happens, we cannot honestly say that these efforts are born of genuine egalitarian concern. They are not. They are simply a well-meaning, yet paternalistic pat on the head from the middle and upper classes.

]]>https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/02/12/has-the-church-abandoned-the-poor/feed/0churchpovertyThe truth about poverty?https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/02/04/the-truth-about-poverty/
https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/02/04/the-truth-about-poverty/#respondMon, 04 Feb 2019 15:22:12 +0000http://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/?p=4734Continue reading →]]>Last year, we took members of several Poverty Truth Commissions to the Greenbelt festival for the first time. It was an exciting and inspiring experience – especially the opportunity for us to reflect together with Clare McBeath, our friend from the Centre for Theology and Justice. Clare collated and shared these theological reflections on the experience of being part of Poverty Truth Commissions.

“Nothing without us, about us, is for us…”

rings the mantra.

I am sat in a small marquee at the Greenbelt arts festival listening to stories and reflections from some of the grassroots commissioners who have formed part of Poverty Truth Commissions. This is a growing movement, begun in Glasgow and now spread to Salford, Wolverhampton and Leeds, which is made up of decision-makers (councils, NHS, housing associations, universities, etc.) and local people who experience poverty. They spend a year getting to know each other through games, sharing personal stories and pairing up to go for coffee.

Each Commission has a facilitator, who uses a Paulo Freirean approach, starting with sharing stories and experiences before moving on to analysis and reflection, with the aim of initiating creative ways in which that experience might be transformed. In many disciplines this is what is known as reflective practice.

In contextual theology the same process is used but the last part of the cycle seeks to link our experience and analysis with theological reflection, i.e. to understand these in the light of our relation to ourselves, God, others and the world – to ask the big questions of life, death, meaning and purpose and what it is to be human.

As I am sat in the marquee at Greenbelt I feel a bit redundant, as I have been asked to work with the group to help them reflect theologically on their experiences. As I listen it is clear that for this group, theological reflection has happened spontaneously, but maybe unconsciously, so I decide that my role is more to prompt and help articulate what is already there. So, the following is seeking to reflect back what I have heard by way of the group’s own theological reflections.

People and their stories

I hear Jayne, Rachel, Kasia and John tell something of their own stories:

Jayne from Salford, born not into poverty
but with a background in education and work,
catalogues ‘a series of unfortunate events’
of Lemony Snicket proportions
of sexual violence and marital breakdown
of bailiffs knocking on the door
and shouting through the letterbox
but through involvement
with the Poverty Truth Commission
her story gains in confidence
and finds its voice in speaking
truth to power.

Rachel from Wolves,
has a background of being abused as a child
trauma, violence and bereavement
sending “me and the world spinning”
with doctors who don’t make sense
stumbling into the Poverty Truth Commission
Rachel has found a place
group therapist, poet and coach
a year’s journey of barriers coming down
“my head had broken from my body…
now it’s attached again”.

Kasia has lived here 10 years
giving up a stable job in Poland
to make a new life for herself
the experience of fuel poverty
where “however much I work
it is still not enough…”
For Kasia, the Poverty Truth Commission
means finding she has something to share
feeling listened to and important
“now I feel needed…
by this country…
I fit in”.

John is a facilitator
working with the commission from Leeds
helping to pull out learning
to dig deeper
and to increase participation
he speaks of the need
to re-humanise the space
both for those in suits
and those experiencing poverty
to themselves and to one another.

Some of the “deep truths” about poverty

A parable or pointing out the obvious

Poverty
invokes
feelings
of invisibility
fear
desperation
loneliness
worthlessness
a series
of unfortunate events
often heaped upon
when the press
blames people
for the situation
they are in
having destroyed
confidence
and self-esteem
the job centre
in our target/money
/business-driven culture
then expects
the same people
to go out
and find a job
to impress
a prospective employer
by projecting
capability
confidence
and self-esteem.

The prophetic voice

Speaking truth to power
can be hard for those in power to hear
to accept and own
that ‘we’ve got it wrong’
gobsmacked counsellors
the ‘all-powerful’
with budget control
who thought they were helping
can cry tears and be challenged
and begin to question
turning the tables
becoming people
rather than suits
as a carefully measured
and administrated
process
goes out the window
when confronted
with a real person’s
experience.

Brokenness and vulnerability

Brokenness and vulnerability
are something we are usually taught to hide
‘project confidence – project self-esteem
a sense of entitlement to shape your own community…’
but what if we let our guard down
stop hiding who we really are
what if we saw the humanness in each other
revealed the brokenness in ourselves
what if civic leaders felt safe enough
to choose to reveal their own vulnerabilities,
frustrations, disappointments, failures…
what is we saw vulnerability as a strength
as the key to deeper inter-personal relationships
to confession and repentance understood
as the threshold to self-awareness
and a deeper community awareness
no longer an ‘us and them’ but a ‘we’
to walk together in humility and faith
knowing that only out of brokenness and vulnerability
comes healing and transformation
resurrection and new life?

Be-longing

The bleeding woman dared to touch Jesus
… and was not turned away

The woman at the well offered Jesus water
… and it was received

The Syrophoenician woman called Jesus in…
for his attitude to her race.

None of these women are named
by those who thought themselves
important enough to write the Bible.

But Jesus took time to meet with them
to find out about their lives
to understand the pain of isolation
to find the points of connection
to realise that we need to belong
to contribute, to give a little of ourselves
to give something back

Because we all long to belong
or at least those of us
who society does not include
long to belong…
to feel part of a bigger picture
to feel connected with ourselves and one another
to feel we have a purpose and value
to flourish and grow
for this is the infectiousness of hope
the experience of what it is to
be-long.

Come to my table… I’ll come to yours

We accept food from our Muslim neighbours
and reciprocate by a return invitation
commissioners hold a café
and invite us to share our ideas
a meal table, a mustard seed
reveal the power of the small starting point
hospitality of food
breaking down our differences
sharing white sliced bread,
ciabatta, pitta, tortilla, chapattis together
this is our body,
this is our blood
communion…
communing with one another
for this is the promise
the new relationship
with God
and with one another
where the impossible
become possible
bringing people together…
dreaming together…

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…

What might a hu-manifesto look like?
a hu-manifesto could create change
could re-humanise a city
it would be based on equality
where everyone has a part
it would involve listening to each other
taking time to think and decide together
it would mean dropping our barriers
and not being afraid of each other
coming out of our shells
and being willing to change
accepting others
and handing over
or stepping up
to share power
it would not involve consultations
as we genuinely would not know
the answers we wanted to get
we would not be afraid to ask
the difficult questions
as to how to effect system change
it could be creative and fun
as it would be focused
on what we can do
from many different perspectives
it would be positive,
empowering
and hope-full.

I see a new heaven and a new earth…

I see a new heaven and a new earth…
where council tax bills come in white envelopes
and reminders come with the invite to speak to a real person.

I see a new heaven and a new earth…
where local counsellors and debt advisers
are available to chat at coffee mornings in community spaces.

I see a new heaven and a new earth…
where support services don’t increase stress
or create a downward spiral making it hard to get back into work.

I see a new heaven and a new earth…
where we invest in work coaches and business fairs
and teaching conflict resolution and inter-personal skills

I see a new heaven and a new earth…
of crazy ideas such as setting up tampon banks
and Mad Pride initiatives that promote (good) mental health.

I see a new heaven and a new earth…
where local people are invited into the city council chamber
to make policy decisions.

I see a new heaven and a new earth…
where NHS doctors don’t dismiss people with prescriptions for tablets
but have time to listen, ask questions and involve patients in their own care.

I see a new heaven and a new earth…
where illness and sin are seen as isolation and disconnection
and recovery is about connection, healing, new life, resurrection…

I see a new heaven and a new earth…
where we have time…
time… to build relationships and trust in each other.

I see a new heaven and a new earth…
where life has a rhythm and a balance
that is not just 70 hours of work, work, WORK for less than a living wage.

I see a new heaven and a new earth…
where we are willing to take risks, create and play
and come up with new acts of imagination…

Tentative conclusions… or what next…?

“The truth about poverty is we don’t have all the answers, but people driving the conversation are those with experience… Poverty Truth Commissions are places where imaginative acts are taking place”.

]]>https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/02/04/the-truth-about-poverty/feed/0churchpovertyIMG_0617Longing to belonghttps://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/01/29/longing-to-belong/
https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/01/29/longing-to-belong/#respondTue, 29 Jan 2019 10:56:33 +0000http://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/?p=4731Continue reading →]]>A creative project in Manchester is exploring the links between social justice and the arts, supported by the Centre for Theology and Justice.

Church Action on Poverty is a partner in the Centre for Theology and Justice, together with Christian Aid, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, and others.

The Centre has teamed up with PassionArt for ‘I Long to Belong’ – a profound exploration of belonging, offering a creative approach to social, theological and justice issues, working with graphic word artist Micah Purnell as theresident artist for 2018-19.

“Our hunger to belong is the longing to find a bridge across the distance from isolation to intimacy. Every one longs for intimacy and dreams of a nest of belonging in which one is embraced, seen, and loved. Something within each of us cries out for belonging. We can have all the world has to offer in terms of status, achievement, and possessions. Yet without a sense of belonging it all seems empty and pointless.”(John O’Donohue, Eternal Echoes)

Through this arts initiative, we aim to learn and reflect upon the role the arts are playing in issues of social justice within our cities and communities, and to consider how the arts can deepen theological reflection and action on issues of justice.

The project hopes to enable artists who are actively engaging in practical justice issues to reflect theologically on what they are doing and why.

By collecting stories and building relationships between artists and theologians, the Centre hopes to broaden the understanding of theologians and the Church as to how the arts are being used to reimagine mission through creative listening and compassion towards the most vulnerable.

The arts enable our cities and our churches to reflect on and engage with justice themes by the retelling of stories to relate meaningfully to the lives of its inhabitants – through music, film, literature, drama, dance, art and galleries, museums, libraries and theatres.

The Centre is gathering and sharing resources about artists, artworks and art-based projects that are actively expressing issues of social justice that will be available on the website. The Centre is also commissioning a series of essays by both theologians and those working in the cultural sphere to encourage theological and cultural reflection on various issues of social justice and the role the arts play.

The project is also hosting a series of ‘Conversations’ with artists, theologians from all faith backgrounds and those working within the cultural sector (gallery and museum curators, composers, poets, writers etc). These recordings will be made available via Sound Cloud and will discuss creative practice, theological reflection and cultural and religious engagement within towns and cities.

]]>https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/01/29/longing-to-belong/feed/0churchpovertylongtobelongSpeaking, talking, and powerhttps://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/01/28/speaking-talking-and-power/
https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/01/28/speaking-talking-and-power/#respondMon, 28 Jan 2019 13:31:52 +0000http://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/?p=4728Continue reading →]]>At our National Poverty Consultation in November, Revd Deirdre Brower Latz was on our panel for a fascinating discussion about churches, poverty, and the idea of a ‘church of the poor’. We asked her to summarise some of what she said there.

I’m preoccupied by questions about the church’s action on poverty. In my roles, and where I live, I’m confronted by the way power works – including in church. I wrestle with how people access speaking, talking, and power; how they’re involved in shaping the future they’ll experience. So, how to hear and include,read and understand, enable and respond (and how not to), are front and centre for the church as we wrestle with poverty and its attached issues.

So, I made a list (it’s longer than this – if you’re interested, I’m happy to go further!):

The challenge of ‘church’ conversations

In settings where urban poverty is daily, ordinary, reality (nothing exotic, just lived-with), the time and opportunity to think, prophetically speak, rage-against, or weep about life is almost a luxury. When you’re living moment-to-moment, working hard to keep the lights on, the injustices of poverty and how you’re wrapped in it are just THERE. So, the role of the church in creating spaces for thinking, speaking, gnashing, lamenting, raging, expressing fury and pain – as well as being communities that enable people from poor communities to take charge of their own aspiration – is crucial.

What does it mean to be church? It means helping the declarations of Luke 4 be realised. Freedom. Healing. Good news.

The challenge of radical support

Of course, this meaning-making together implies the church needs to gather. How’s that possible in a gig economy, shift work, poorly paid jobs demanding all the hours God sends? We’re talking about real distribution of goods, wealth, food and time here – so we shape communities where people are not effectively economic slaves. We declare, prophetically, ‘freedom,’ and act accordingly. That takes sacrifice, time, graft and a radical rethink of economic individualism. We ensure that no one in our community goes hungry. This is a call to radical community as seen in Acts 2 and other places.

But, there’s the question of who decides the way we speak when we do gather? A challenge to the church is that the rules of engagement almost always have been settled somewhere else. There’s an assumed procedure and tone of voice for decision making: a ‘normal’ way of speaking, listening, communicating truth. There’s an assumed key for singing, and type of song (hymns, anyone? Soft rock?).

The values-in-ascendancy in a lot of churches seem to be largely co-equivalent to being middle-class. Niceness rules. What if it doesn’t?

What if we’re allowed to be passionate in communication in a whole different order? What if jokes are different? The anger is different? The honesty is different? The rhythm is different? What if the cultural navigation is mutual – and the middle-class congregant with the working-class vicar has to learn a mode of speech that’s not just, well, middle class? What if the intrinsic worth of the PERSON communicating, or worshipping, or preaching, or praying, or making a point in a church meeting, is allowed to trump the way communication is occurring? What if we find modes and mechanisms for talking to each other about how to address and vanquish the calamity of poverty that transcend class and educational background or economic standard? This takes us into the book of James.

The challenge of how to see the world differently

To see the good things in places and amongst people of poverty. Reframing our line-of-sight so we spy the things God already does in communities amongst people experiencing poverty. The people of God amplify grace and speak it aloud. The church aligned with God-stuff: we see inherent worth in people– and where lives nudge people towards love-whose-name-is-God, we name it. So, we speak life and not death over places of poverty. We name the false gods we see. We support the leaning towards life that looks like aspiration. A bit like Acts 17.

For me, one of the challenges then, is for the theological life of the people of God, the church, to be crafted into a hopeful framework that enables transformation from poverty to wholeness. So we enhance the attributes of people skilled at crafting-life while poor, and help God’s people to learn to craft justice in opposition to those places where poverty brings death.

Revd Deirdre Brower Latz has pastored churches in urban Bristol and Manchester and is a lecturer in Pastoral and Social Theology at the Nazarene Theological College in Manchester. She is interested in issues of justice and transformation, urban realities and practices – all joined with an intense love of learning and theology.

“Everything looked bright for us as we embarked upon our first business together at a bistro in early 2017,” says Tony. “Unfortunately, although it looked great on paper things soon started to cascade out of our control. The next job, a live-in post at a pub, didn’t work out either.

“In January 2018 we found ourselves in a homeless hostel and six months later we had to resort to living in a tent beside the River Ouse.”

Again: How would you have coped in their situation? Let down by the system, what would you have done?

Tony, Sue and Buster survived on £4 a day. They were able to do so partly because of Sue’s professional skills as a chef. She has 20 years’ experience in kitchens, so was able to rustle up nutritous meals with local free vegetables, reduced-to-clear items and a few other careful purchases.

Tony says: “On a budget of £4 a day to feed ourselves and Buster via Universal Credit we spent much of our time sourcing ingredients and fresh water just to survive.

“Probably to keep ourselves sane we kept a record of our recipes. Many of the recipes in the book were created and cooked beside our tent on a single-burner camp stove. We were fortunate to be helped by several charities and now have a flat in York. The remainder of these recipes have been created and cooked here on the same very limited budget.

“This our first book of recipes, it is our way of giving something back to the charities who helped us and are continuing to help the homeless and those in need. We hope you find them inspiring and more to the point tasty and frugal.”

]]>https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/01/04/recipes-for-change-tony-sue-say-a-fantastic-thank-you/feed/0gavinaaitchisonvegetable-pan-1271990_1920.jpgtony_sueLooking back on 2018: top five blog postshttps://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/01/04/looking-back-on-2018-top-five-blog-posts/
https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2019/01/04/looking-back-on-2018-top-five-blog-posts/#commentsFri, 04 Jan 2019 12:16:55 +0000http://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/?p=4715Continue reading →]]>As we start a new year, we revisit the posts on our blog that had the biggest impact in 2018.

These were the five posts that reached the largest audiences during 2018:

2018 was the year that Your Local Pantry, our model for a ‘social supermarket’ began to take off. We’re working with groups around the UK to set up Pantries that will give people access to good food while building community.

Some creative ideas from our collective of worship writers and theologians – unpacking the challenging idea of a ‘church of the poor’ and asking what it really means for our communities and congregations.

We hope you find something challenging or inspiring in these posts today as we look forwards to 2019! Thanks to everyone who read and shared them, helping to spread the word and get more people engaged in loosening the grip of poverty.

Our director Niall Cooper also commented for the i. He said: “Martin’s experience shows that Universal Credit and the welfare system more broadly are not working as they should. A compassionate society looks out for its least well off and enables them to fulfil their potential.

“Right now, our system isn’t doing that. We’ve been working with other charities to highlight the need to fix Universal Credit, but Martin also identifies things that society and the Government need to do if we’re to tackle poverty, such as ending the benefits freeze and increasing the supply of affordable housing.”

]]>https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2018/12/18/martin-speaks-up-to-help-unlock-poverty/feed/0martingavinaaitchisonFoodbanks and the politics of salvationhttps://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2018/12/18/foodbanks-and-the-politics-of-salvation/
https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2018/12/18/foodbanks-and-the-politics-of-salvation/#respondTue, 18 Dec 2018 13:29:24 +0000http://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2018/12/18/foodbanks-and-the-politics-of-salvation/pioneer thoughts: ? I am getting increasingly concerned and frustrated by food banks, in Sheffield and elsewhere, that think their work is “apolitical” …. I’ve even discussed the difference between “apolitical” and non party political on social…]]>

A powerful and challenging blog from Nick Waterfield, chair of Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield.

I am getting increasingly concerned and frustrated by food banks, in Sheffield and elsewhere, that think their work is “apolitical” …. I’ve even discussed the difference between “apolitical” and non party political on social media sites belonging to such foodbanks and I have had my comments deleted.

Such voluntary silencing of the role of and reasons behind the growing use of food banks and other charity food relief is itself inevitably political. Important voices from the past remind us:

“Not to speak, is to speak. Not to act, is to act” Deitrich Bonhoeffer

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor” Desmond Tutu

Foodbanks only exist because of a failure in civic and political policy and the way society supports citizens when we become vulnerable within our society. That vulnerability immediately effects our access to the “marketplace” and the accepted ways…

]]>https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2018/12/18/foodbanks-and-the-politics-of-salvation/feed/0churchpovertyChristian responses to poverty: community not charityhttps://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2018/12/05/christian-responses-to-poverty-community-not-charity/
https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2018/12/05/christian-responses-to-poverty-community-not-charity/#respondWed, 05 Dec 2018 09:05:26 +0000http://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/?p=4703Continue reading →]]>At the start of November 2018, Church Action on Poverty and our partners at ‘Life on the Breadline’ held a National Poverty Consultation in Manchester, drawing together many people in the churches who are involved in tackling poverty and injustice. At an opening panel on ‘Church of the Poor’, campaigner Stef Benstead shared these thoughts on Christian responses to poverty.

Eight years of government cutbacks have caused a return of destitution in the UK. Increasing numbers of people are unable to afford housing, food, hygiene products, electricity and heating. In response, food banks have become a major institution, but government cuts to charitable grants mean that the rest of the charitable sector is falling under the weight of need.

Many Christians rightly want to respond. But others say that their responsibility ends with the paying of their taxes. Some complain that the welfare state has destroyed community and so they want the State to pull back and reduce taxes.

But the State has pulled back and has cut taxes, without a commensurate rise in Christian giving.

How should Christians respond to austerity? Should we be calling on Christians to step up and take direct responsibility for community and the ending of poverty? Is there any role for the State in ending poverty, and if there is do Christians play any part in achieving State action?

In God’s plans for Israel, he made provision for both charity and dignity. The laws on redemption saw land, possessions and wealth restored to poor people as of right; the laws on gleaning and servitude meant that there was always decent work available to poor people, again as of right. These laws – to be created and maintained by the State – ensured dignity for all people. The State bears a God-given responsibility for basic rights and dignity of people under its rule. Direct charity by individuals does not let the State off the hook, because charity does not provide the basic dignity that God expects for all people.

But State provision does not let individuals off the hook for direct charity either. God still required his people as individuals to give generously to those in need.

The reason for this, I think, is two-fold. Firstly, the State can provide access to all that people need, but the people who most need it will tend to go unseen by the State, because they are not accessing State support. There will always be a need for Christians to deliberately seek those who otherwise go unseen. Even better would be for Christians to already be there, to already be friends before a crisis comes.

Secondly, we are social animals. We have needs that go beyond the physical and material. The State can’t provide this, because true friendships are based on two people choosing to spend time together. The need for free choice makes it impossible for any State structure to provide true companionship. Even the charities that provide befriending services don’t fully replicate friendship.

Christians as individuals must be doing what Jesus did: leaving their wealth and privilege to live amongst the poor and needy, to be there when help is needed, to be charitable by being community. And Christians as a body should be working to see good government: government that provides access to decent houses and decent jobs, so that everyone has the opportunity to provide for themselves as far as they can rather than being dependent on the chance good-will and whims of the better-off.

Stef Benstead is a disability and social security researcher. Her new book Second Class Citizens is coming soon.

]]>https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2018/12/05/christian-responses-to-poverty-community-not-charity/feed/0churchpovertyLife on the Breadline_community